[fmajid]

For HSBC I doubt it. But I remember seeing a map of all the branches the defunct BCCI bank had, and they had something like 10x more branches in Colombia than in the US (this was a Pakistani Bank). They went under a few years later.

[fogforthought93]

I'm surprised that you'd bring up BCCI in this instance, an institution absolutely steeped in intelligence spookery. Refer to The Outlaw Bank by Jonathan Beaty.

HSBC was founded to finance the Opium wars in China in the 19th century. Let's be adults here, the world's biggest banks aren't letting drug trade profits, the world's most lucrative trade, simply fall to small fries. They own it.

[gadders]

Global size of illicit drug economy: $360 billion

Global size of FX market: $7.5 trillion per day

It's not small money, but it's not that big compared to financial markets.

[fogforthought93]

Idk where you got that figure for the drug economy but $360B per year is on the low-end and likely outdated.

Going off a UN report from the 90s, the illicit drug trade is similar to international trade in oil and gas—that's the order we're talking about. Remember this is a commodity, so it's a bit misleading to compare it the flow of money in foreign exchange markets.

UNDCP Technical Series Number 6:ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF DRUG ABUSE AND ILLICIT TRAFFICKING.